A vehicle is well-known that includes an engine, an electric motor coupled to the engine, and an engagement device non-rotatably fixing the engine. For example, a vehicle described in Patent Document 1 includes an engine, an electric motor coupled via a differential mechanism to the engine, and a clutch selectively coupling a crankshaft of the engine to a non-rotating member to non-rotatably fix the engine. In a vehicle including an electric motor, electric power is given/received between, for example, the electric motor and an electric storage device (e.g., a secondary cell or a battery) via an electric circuit (e.g., an inverter unit). Because of high voltage between the electric storage device or a voltage of an electric storage member (e.g., an inverter capacitor such as an input capacitor, a filter capacitor, or a smoothing capacitor) in the electric circuit, various techniques have been proposed for further improving safety when the vehicle is damaged.
For example, in a technique (discharge control of a capacitor) proposed in Patent Document 2, if a collision of a vehicle is predicted, a relay disposed in an electric path between a battery and an inverter unit is opened and a switching operation of a switching element disposed on an inverter portion of the inverter unit is controlled to discharge high-voltage electric power stored in an inverter capacitor so as not to generate a torque in an electric motor. In a technique proposed in Patent Document 3, when a vehicle collides, fuel supply is terminated to stop an engine and an electric motor is coupled to the fuel-cut engine to stop rotation of the electric motor, thereby preventing the electric motor from operating as an electric generator.